One Paragraph Movie Review: The King of Comedy

Two hundred and eighty-eighth film: The King of Comedy, the Scorsese film that Todd Phillips’ Joker directly copied from. I unknowingly gave Joker too much credit, but now that I’ve seen the ultimate film about a criminally obsessed wannabe comedian who may or may not be imagining most of his life’s scenarios, I see the error of my ways. Scorsese absolutely kills it, brazenly using a relaxed Ray Charles soundtrack to offset the loud and increasing clenching of the audience. De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin is a recognisable fame-obsessed comedy fan, who with crazed Masha — played perfectly by Sandra Bernhard, gains an impolite amount of access to Jerry Lewis’s talk show host character until everything gets extremely out of hand. Rupert doesn’t take rejection well, and using gradually more illegal methods secures an uncomfortable stand-up spot on national television. We think. We don’t know how much is real or imagined, from his annoyed mother to his post-prison autobiography. It’s awful, I LOVE it. Five excessive uses of gaffer tape out of five.